A Few Things With Claire And Erica

We’re steaming (and pan-frying!) a lot of frozen dumplings, and we’re recommending a lot of Thingies. Come along with us, huh?   But first: latke cookies.    A dumplings-as-an-aesthetic episode of this very podcast.   Frozen dumplings we’re into: Fly by Jing and Nom Wah.   Stunning rainbow dumplings we’re into: Sandita’s rainbow dumplings.   Three things that make a big difference when cooking up dumplings at home: a bamboo steamer, Chinkiang black vinegar, and these Wing on Wo soup spoons. Another helpful resource: Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes.   Ok, Thingies!! Kevyn Aucoin Beauty The Volume Mascara (Claire) and Lily Lolo Natural Vegan Mascara (Erica), Saint Olio cleaner (plus hand sanitizer), Wolford tights (start with Velvet De Luxe 50 or 66), Zicam lozenges, Maldon salt (see: this Bon App article), Kewpie Deep-Roasted Sesame Dressing, Lo & Sons The O.G. 2 carry-on (plus a charming video), Kinto kids’ dishes, and Trader Joe’s Roasted & Salted Marcona Almonds with Rosemary.   Secret M

Caroline Moss, host of the podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It!, brings joy to everything she does, and we’re jazzed to ride her wave of holiday-giving enthusiasm straight through December and into 2022. Another thing we’re taking into next year is our new mantra: What happens if you don’t?   Julie Houts did the wonderful new illustration of us ya see in our podcast art! You’ve gotta check out her Instagram! Ooh, and shop her prints!   Related content: Erica waiting for Claire in fitting rooms.   If you don’t listen to Caroline’s podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It! yet, you’re in for a treat. Our Black Friday ep with her could be a good starting point. Don’t sleep on her gift guides either—or the book she co-wrote Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails.   Caroline’s go-to Hallmark holiday movie: The Christmas List.   A few holiday giving initiatives Caroline supports and you can too (like, this year—not at all too late!): Operation Santa (there’s a doc, Dear Santa, about

What an episode we have in store! We’re going deep on some of our favorite recent discoveries from our Monday newsletter—which: If you aren’t signed up for that thing, now's your chance to fix that.   The usefulness of the term bitch eating crackers (BEC) (for context: Someecards).   Celebrity memoirs as audiobooks: Inside Out by Demi Moore, Acid for the Children by Flea, and Yearbook by Seth Rogen (see also: this profile by Jonah Weiner for NYT Magazine). Next up: My Life So Far by Jane Fonda, Faithfull by Marianne Faithful,  The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. Oh, and: the podcast Celebrity Book Club with Steven & Lily. Also: Please read Open by Andre Agassi and J.R. Moehringer!   Important breaking news: There is now Spelling Bee merch.      Let’s hear Claire’s QVC pitch for the Pattern mist spray bottle!! Somewhat related: Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater...as a hair product?   Erica’s 11 a.m. tea go-to: Soul Chai. Another (slightly sweetened rec): Dona.   A workspace-c

You know what we love? When someone makes a thing we’re really desparate to use. Which means we can’t wait for the launch of Postcard, a tool to help us share our travel recommendations in an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing way. We’ll let David Cho tell ya all about it...and share his Thingies. That’s right: a guest Thingies ep. Tell us how you feel about that?? Two relevant celebrity memoirs: Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling and Yearbook by Seth Rogen.   Oh, the joy of a website called findcelebrityjobs.com.   Be Postcard guinea pigs! Make some lists! Send them to us!   David’s Thingies! Orion Turtle Chips Choco Churros Flavor (and Sweet Corn if you’re us), Rose Delights, therapy!!!, Golden Fertile Eggs, Sun Ha Jang in L.A., and “A Home Movies Thanksgiving Special with Alison Roman” (also her spring chicken with crispy leeks recipe).   Do you have Thingies noms? Hit us at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   For so many more of our favorites, get yourself a Secret Menu subscription.

Gift Guide Round 3: Siblings, Teens, Co-Workers, Friends, and Grandparents!   Our third gift guide ep already?! We know. There’s so much ahead—and behind if you missed part 1 and part 2—but if you’re still on the present hunt, subscribe to Secret Menu for many more holiday-shopping thoughts ‘n feelings.   Kids and Teens!   Almost 14 year old girl Brooklyn kid Art! Ideal Bookshelf 974: Feminists by Jane Mount, The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood, Group IV by Hilma af Klint, Krista Marie Young painting, and Amber Vittoria prints The start of a charm bracelet, maybe with this Catbird Holy Cannoli charm Studs e-gift card Lizzie Fortunato Little Candy DIY Kit (for a younger kid: Super Smalls or Susan Alexandra) Olive & June mani system Dye Kween Sleep mask or socks Kule T-shirt This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew Macmillan Visual Dictionary D C-T! by Joana Avillez and Molly Young Donation to Girl Up Monogrammed tech accessories from Leatherology   Angsty teenage nephews who already have everything

If you just CAN’T with the gifting stress, drama, and intrigue this year and are looking to do some one-stop shopping, well, welcome to our second gift guide of the season, in partnership with the glorious, aesthetically driven team over at MoMA Design Store. Use the code ATHINGORTWO online or in store for 10% off your purchase now through November 24 (fine print below)—and know that every purchase supports the museum's collection and education programs. Talk about a GWP!   Heyo: Dig into all of our MoMA Design Store gifting picks.   Healthcare practitioners who I see regularly but don't know on a personal level 2022 Stendig Poster Calendar or 2022 Jumping Point Calendar  Yoshitomo Nara Bandages Italian Ball Candle MoMA Monet and Ed Ruscha artist masks   My new colleagues who I want to love me. Something cheap, cute, and maybe useful. Extendable Phone Stand Denis Guidone Milano Times Hourglasses Twist Cable Protector - Set of 3 MoMA Touchscreen Mist Cleaner   I have to buy gifts for approximately eight th

Gift Guide Round 1: Moms, Dads, and Significant (or Formerly Significant) Others   It’s gift-guide season around these parts, and here we are with the first of three—three!—installments to help you along with the hardest-to-shop-for people in your life (hopefully). If you need more ideas, subscribing to Secret Menu might be just the answer.   Moms and Mothers-in-Law!   Single mom by choice to an amazing little girl. Since it's just the two of us and she's a toddler, I need to help her buy her a gift for me. I realize that buying a gift for one's self shouldn't be difficult but I'm saving to buy us a condo and this will be my one quality and/or impractical spend for the foreseeable future. So I want to make it count and I'd love your help. I am willing to spend up to $400.00. I appreciate smart function in design and I have lost zero baby weight, so anything that involves sizing has the potential to make me cry, which feels like it would defeat the purpose. I work about 75 hours a week and am currently doing s

What a treat it is to talk to one of our favorite artists, Mimi O Chun, who just mounted her first gallery show! Deeply impressive, we know. Speaking of impressive, there’s one department store that’s doing it for us lately, and we (predictably) have a lot to say about that.   Friends, a contest. Submit your best stab at a description for this podcast via voicemail to 833-632-5463, email to podcast@athingortwohq.com, or IG DM to @athingortwohq. There’s Professional Enthusiast merch in store for the winner…   The lore of the set of tires being returned to Nordstrom: It's true.   If you’re in the Phoenix area—or will be between now and January—go see Mimi O Chun’s show It’s all cake at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.    Watch this video for a taste of Mimi’s work and, dear god, please follow her on IG.   “Museum of Oat Dreams (for One)”—wowowow.    Stuffed Hipster Emblems!   Mimi’s sister Miro is an amazing ceramicist, too: Check out Miro Made This for her work.   Find a professional counselor with B

Today, we bring you love and affection for a renowned butter sculptor, complicated feelings about baking, and some pretty sweet recipes for Q4 2021.   The retirement of the Minnesota State Fair butter sculptor, per The StarTribune! Related: the Christopher Guest-ish movie Butter.   Andy Murray and the case of the stolen tennis shoes and wedding ring that were returned.    Dorie Greenspan’s compelling argument for baking in a recent Garden & Gun interview.   Three baking cookbooks Erica loves: The Cake Bible, Cannelle Et Vanille: Nourishing, Gluten-Free Recipes for Every Meal and Mood, and The Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Book: Uncommon Recipes.   Some baking recipes we have up our sleeves: Claudia Roden’s Orange and Almond Cake, Julia Turshen’s Afternoon Cake, Smitten Kitchen Strawberry Summer Cake, Yotam Ottolenghi’s Flourless Coconut Cake, Julia Child’s Genoa Almond Cake / Pain de Gênes (page 78 here), Emily Luchetti’s Ginger Cookies (and Emily Luchetti’s Stareos), Ovenly's Salted Peanut Butter Cook

Two content powerhouses we just can’t seem to get enough of these days: The Sesame Street crew on social media (looking at you, Count Von Count) and A.J. Daulerio in his newsletter The Small Bow and podcast Really Good Shares, both of which address recovery in really thoughtful, nuanced ways that speak to us as people who aren’t in recovery.   An Adweek story from 2010 about Sesame Street’s social-media presence when the strategy was run by Dan Lewis, the guy behind the Now I Know newsletter.   A few Sesame Street things you need to see: Count Von Count on Twitter, Big Bird x Oscar from 2018, Oscar the Grouch on #MetGala.   We’re such massive fans of A.J. Daulerio’s work—subscribe to The Small Bow! Listen to Really Good Shares!   “My Years in the Florida Shuffle of Drug Addiction” by Colton Wooten for The New Yorker.    The Really Good Shares ep with former Jezebel and Hairpin editor Emma Carmichael about a truly terrible year.   Our crossover moment: A.J.’s newsletter about Sesame Street.   Another pitch for

Wowowowow, are we grateful to our pals over at Projector, the free web-based software for collaborative design, for partnering with us on this ep to bring you—and us!—the scoop on colors, fonts, trends, and even some loose rules, ℅ a couple of our favorite designers to work with and one we aspire to work with someday. Obviously you’ll need to deep-dive into everything Colin Smight, Rachel Herzig, and Andrew Kuo after listening…   Colin Smight of Cul de Sac Studio! Relevant clickage: Collage Culture, the font foundry ABC Dinamo, Rose Los Angeles, and By Humankind.   Rachel Herzig! Relevant clickage: It’s Nice That and Jieyi Lee.   Andrew Kuo! Relevant clickage: his basketball podcast Cookies Hoops and @earlboykins2.   Get ready to fall as hard for Projector as we have. It’s basically like Google Drive for design projects, and we use it daily. You don’t need any design experience to use it, and free—to sign up, to use, all of it.   Produced by Dear Media

The perfection of the packaging of Clinique’s 3-Step System. The joy of convincing a dad at a drugstore that lipgloss is just a balm. The best possible name for a cow toilet, the MooLoo. Oh, what an ep we have in store for you.   Care of the Associated Press: “No bull: Scientists potty train cows to use ‘MooLoo.’” Related-ish: Oh Crap! Potty Training and the Potette.   A few beauty products from our youth that we’re interested in revisiting: Aveda Shampure (and, also Shampowder dry shampoo?!), The Body Shop’s Mango Body Butter (or perhaps Olive Body Butter), Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey (which Erica still wears—and Claire wears as Superbalm), and Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue (Claire’s long-time sig scent).   Get professional counseling with BetterHelp—10% off your first month with our link! Try Nutrafol for thicker, healthier hair. Your first month’s subscription is $15 off with the code ATHINGORTWO. Download the Zocdoc app (for free!) and schedule a doctor’s appointment already. YAY.   Produced

You know what we have a lot to say about today? A lot of things, from high praise for neighborhood restaurants and actually useful apps to sharing weddings FAQs and advocating for yourself at the doctor’s office.    Behold, the Covid wedding template of our dreams: Our beloved friends & family, It's only 30 days until our wedding! We're so glad that you are coming and celebrating this special day with us.  A few announcements regarding the wedding:  Serious stuff You must be fully vaccinated to attend the event. Please send your proof of vaccination to EMAIL ADDRESS. For children and adults with underlying medical conditions preventing them from getting vaccinated, we ask that you obtain a negative PCR Covid-19 test result within 48 hours prior to the event. Your health is of utmost importance to us, and we have therefore decided to cancel ANY CHANGES TO EVENT SCHEDULE. Fun stuff X, Y, Z!   Apps worth your limited phone storage space: Weather Strip, Libby, and PictureThis (related-ish: Merlin Bird ID)

More all-time fave products, coming your way in today’s Thingies episode! If you want to catch up on past installments, dive right in. To kick us off, though: a word about word games.   Ladies and gentlemen, the NYT Spelling Bee.   Leon Neyfakh’s somehow-relevant Grub Street Diet.   Inkubator, crosswords by cis women, trans women, and woman-aligned constructors, and When We Cross Words to make your own crosswords.   Thingies!!! Zout, Laundress Mesh Washing Bags (related: a laundry drying rack), Kate’s Butter, Stonewall Kitchen Bloody Mary Mixer (try also: McClure’s Bloody Mary Mix), Breadblok GF bread (for glutinous bread in NYC: She Wolf Bakery Classic Batard), and Revlon ColorStay Lip Liner in Nude.   Destress with Calm and take 40% off a premium subscription with our link. Slip into Girlfriend Collective’s sustainable, ethically made activewear. $25 off your first purchase of $100 or more when you use our link. Try professional counseling with BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month with our link. Tack

Why is it that talking about cereal and periods brings on waves of nostalgia? If you feel the same, well, please do share: 833-632-5463 or @athingortwohq.   The birth of cereal restaurants in the early aughts! See: Cereality. See now: Kith Treats.   Newish cereals worth knowing about: Magic Spoon and OffLimits.   The Nyssa VieVision Between Legs Mirror would have really changed things for us as teenagers.   A timely Ziwe tweet.   A menstrual cup to check out: Noble Cup.   Period underwear, especially useful for those last couple days: Thinx (plus Speax for bladder leak) and Karla Welch’s brand Period.   A fascinating read from Elle “Do You Really Need Your Period?” by Lauren Sampedro.    The Clue app and an interesting story from 2018 (also from Elle!) about its rise and the research potential of its data.   We’ve been getting such good voicemails! And yet we’re hungry for more! Get us at 833-632-5463.   Re: the awesome voicemail at the end of this episode about produce and condiment fridge swapping, a TikTok

Gillian Laub’s photography makes us cry. And laugh! What we’re saying is, it’s magical, and just wait until you hear about her latest project Family Matters, a book and an exhibit exploring family (hers, specifically) in a politically divided America. Something we need to address first, though: racing hot dogs (vegan ones, specifically).   Courtesy of Eater: “PETA wants the big hot dog costumes at baseball games to be vegan, but surprise! They already are.”   Let’s please examine The Famous Racing Sausages at Milwaukee Brewers games and the racing pierogies at Pittsburgh Pirates games.   We’ll take any opportunity to give a little love to Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo.   Pick up Gillian Laub’s outrageously compelling book Family Matters! See her show at the International Center of Photography in NYC from September 24, 2021, to January 10, 2022!   For more of Gillian’s work, check out her site and IG.   More on Pop-Up Magazine, where Gillian workshopped this project.   Another relevant book that Gillian loves (um,

Pals, it’s a friendship grab bag! We’re chatting with Katie Seaver, a deep-thinker looking for a deep friendship who placed a classified ad in our newsletter seeking one, and then we’re diving into friendship age gaps and group chat dynamics (a whole thing!).   Yes, you want to know Katie Seaver, who ran a classified ad in our newsletter that linked to a Google doc titled “Wanted: A deep + meaningful friendship in Northeast Los Angeles.” She’s also a life coach with a newsletter that touches on, yup, friendship.   Shasta Nelson’s book Frientimacy: How to Deepen Friendships for Lifelong Health and Happiness.   A shout-out to Bumble BFF.   The story of the rude TikTok and the woman who deserved (and found) new friends.   An interview with Lakshmi Rengarajan, host of the podcast Paired by the People, about asking intentional questions on romantic or friend dates.   A timeline of Kourtney Kardashian and Addison Rae’s friendship.   “I Want What They Have, Friendship Edition: Tilda Swinton and Timothée Chalamet.”  

That’s right: today’s ep is a real grab bag, and we imagine you have thoughts? Share them! At @athingortwohq, podcast@athingortwohq.com, and 833-632-5463! If this is exactly the kind of content you’re in the market for, Secret Menu will be up your alley, too.   The full Nalata Nalata ecomm experience! The Our Story page, the Welcome to Our New Website statement, and every single one of the product descriptions.   Our favorite L.A. store in the Nalata Nalata vein: Tortoise General Store.   Shout-out to St. Louis Tag Co., world’s greatest maker of hang tags.   Two anti-fridgers: Sophia Roe and Molly McAleer. To make produce storage more complicated: The Kitchn’s Guide to Storing Fruits and Vegetables.   One hair product: Hairstory New Wash.    Two long-hair heroes: Crystal Gayle and Totally Hair Barbie.    A great NYC barber: Neighborhood Barbers.   Give BetterHelp a go for professional counseling and get 10% off your first month with our link. Use Modern Fertility’s finger-prick test to get a handle on your fe

In which we reveal that our ideal meal might involve grilled oysters, McDonald’s fries, and a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Hey, they’re all tastes of summer, ok?   A case for oysters from Well+Good: “The More Oysters You Eat, the Better the Oceans Get”    An oyster-heavy cookbook: Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou.   Erica has low-key shucking gloves from Little Creek Oysters in Greenport on the North Fork of Long Island (a lovely place to learn to shuck if you’re in the neck of the woods).   Grilled oysters! A revelation! Hama Hama has a great guide and sells “grillers.” Eat ‘em with this NYT hot-sauce butter recipe.   We do need you to know about the copywriting happening over at Long John Silver’s.   The original Arby’s sign! And Rolando Pujol’s whole Instagram account, really.   “Letter of Recommendation: Why the Filet-O-Fish Is My Gold Standard for Fast Food”   Eater on the rise and fall of the Arch Deluxe.   The late Roger Ebert on his love of Steak 'n Shake (and David Letterman’s t

How do you show up for your people when they’ve grieving, dealing with loss, and/or just generally going through a really shitty time? What a genuine joy it was to talk about this with Nora McInerny, whose podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking you obviously know (right?). And first: some JIC gifts.   In case of emergency gifts for grown-ups: consumables (candles, condiments, beauty products!). For babies: Lewis swaddles and Sophies. For kids: Twee chalk, Sunprint Kits, and Omy coloring posters.   Dig into everything Nora McInerny puts out into the world, including the tremendous podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking and her books It's Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too), No Happy Endings, and Hot Young Widows Club (and created a Facebook grief support group of the same name).   The NYT piece on the sex educator Justine Ang Fonte and the platinum rule.   The Ring Theory, which we really buy into and talk about a lot!    A Kids Book about Empathy...that’s potentially useful for adults, too.   Friends, this TikTok se